Tony Hearn

For the rugby player, see Tony Hearn (rugby league).

David Anthony Hearn (4 March 1929 – 31 December 2019), known as Tony Hearn, was a British trade union leader.

Biography

Hearn attended Trinity College, Oxford. He began working for the Association of Broadcasting Staff (ABS) in 1955, as assistant to the General Secretary, Leslie Littlewood. He moved up through the ranks, becoming one of the Assistant General Secretaries, Deputy General Secretary and eventually General Secretary in 1972. He also became Secretary of the loose Federation of Broadcasting Unions.^[1]

In 1984, Hearn took the ABS into a merger with the National Association of Theatrical and Kine Employees, which formed the Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance (BETA).^[2] He became joint General Secretary of BETA with John Wilson, then sole head of the union in 1987.^[1]

In 1991, he BETA it into a further merger, this time with the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians, which produced the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU).^[2] Hearn became its first General Secretary, a position he held until 1993.^[1]

Hearn died on 31 December 2019, at the age of 90.^[1][3]

References

1. "Hearn, David Anthony", Who Was Who 2024
2. BECTU, "BECTU's History"
3. "Report 2019–20" (PDF). Trinity College. p. 70. Retrieved 5 January 2024.

Sources

• Asa Briggs, History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom

Trade union offices
Preceded by Tom Rhys	General Secretary of the Association of Broadcasting Staff 1972–1984	Succeeded by post abolished
Preceded by new post	General Secretary of the Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance 1984–1991 With: John Wilson (1984–1987)	Succeeded by post abolished
Preceded by new post	General Secretary of the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union 1991–1993 With: Alan Sapper (1991)	Succeeded by Roger Bolton